Summary
On the heels of Scopely’s acquisition of Niantic’s games division,Pokemon GO’s senior product director Michael Steranka, who has worked on the game for eight years, has addressed the fandom’s main concerns regarding the takeover and how it will impact the mobile game.Pokemon GOis an augmented reality title that was first released in 2016, allowing trainers to wander their real-life locations to catch, train, and battle virtual Pokemon along the way.
Scopely is an American video game developer and publisher, noted for being the second-biggest mobile game developer in the world. Scopely launchedMonopoly GOin 2023, which went on to become the biggest mobile title of that year, and the developer may also be familiar to some for its work onPikmin BloomandMarvel Strike Force. The studio has also received the keys toMonster Hunter Now, which recently had acrossover withMonster Hunter Wildsto celebrate Capcom’s launch, andPokemon GOfans are understandably nervous to see their beloved game being passed to new creatives.
During an interview with Polygon, Steranka wanted to quell fans’ concerns after it was announced at the beginning of March 2025 thatPokemon GOhad been sold to Scopely. Steranka confirmed he did his due diligence on Scopely and determined that “they share so many of the same values that we’ve held near and dear.” Niantic also has every confidence in Scopely’s ability to “evolve the game in the way that we’ve always envisioned wanting to do.” Addressing the main elephant in the room that’s concerning fans regarding talk of intrusive ads that will begin plaguing gameplay, Steranka nipped that rumor in the bud, saying, “That is not happening in Pokemon Go — not now, not ever." Steranka expanded, “We will not be building into our games any type of obtrusive ads or anything like that…that is not something that we feel would ever be right for Pokemon GO.”
Pokemon GO Director Weighs in on Fans' Concerns Amid Scopely Acquisition
Pokemon GOfans expressed several concerns amid Scopely’s acquisition, including another worry regarding the exposure of players’ location and movement data to other organizations, which Steranka tackled head-on. “We do not sell player data to third parties, full stop …we follow all the incredibly strict regulatory best practices to protect that data as best as we can.” Furthermore, Steranka confirmed The Pokemon Company is “very supportive” of the Scopely acquisition, and assured the community that the organization will continue to be a valuable, hands-on partner to Scopely in a bid to create authenticPokemon GOexperiences.
While Niantic devs do their best to get trainers on board the acquisition, the developer is also dealing with a faux pas that occurred in the AR game recently.Niantic may be offering compensation toPokemon GOplayers after a Catch Mastery event glitchsignificantly hindered players from catching a Shiny Omanyte or Shiny Kabuto. Trainers were understandably frustrated when Niantic’s promise of an increased shiny spawn rate never came to fruition, and it sadly added to the player base’s ongoing disdain for the game’s frequent bugs and crashes.
